Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022

In News

• Recently, the Union Cabinet gave its nod to The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022.

About

• Aim:  
  • To merge the Capital’s three municipal corporations — South, North and East — ten years after the trifurcation of the civic body.
• Origin: 
  • The MCD was trifurcated in 2012 with the stated aim of decentralisation of governance. 
• Reason for Unification Move:
  • The trifurcation was uneven in terms of the territorial divisions and revenue-generating potential of each corporation. 
  • As a result, there was a huge gap in the resources available to the three corporations, vis-a-vis their obligations. 
  • The gap has widened over a period of time, increasing the financial difficulties of the three municipal corporations, leaving them incapacitated to make timely payment of salaries and retirement benefits to their employees and thereby creating serious impediments in maintaining civic services in Delhi.

Municipal corporations

• Municipal corporations are created for the administration of big cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore and others. 
• They are established in the states by the acts of the concerned state legislatures, and in the union territories by the acts of the Parliament of India. 
• There may be one common act for all the municipal corporations in a state or a separate act for each municipal corporation.
• A municipal corporation has three authorities, namely:
  • the council, 
  • the standing committees and 
  • the commissioner.
• Three Types of Municipalities are there in every state:
  • A Nagar panchayat (by whatever name called) for a transitional area, that is, an area in transition from a rural area to an urban area.
  • A municipal council for a smaller urban area.
  • A municipal corporation for a larger urban area

Related Facts 

• In 1687-88, the first municipal corporation in India was set up at Madras.
• In 1726, the municipal corporations were set up in Bombay and Calcutta.
• Part IX-A of the Constitution provides for three types of municipalities in every state, that is, Nagar panchayat for a transitional area, municipal council for a smaller urban area and municipal corporation for a larger urban area.

Source: IE + LM